Mercosur hopefully finalizes Venezuela's membership.

[pampango]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8329613.stm

"Venezuela's combative President Hugo Chavez is used to dividing international opinion. But even by his standards, the wrangle over his role in South America's biggest free-trade alliance is pretty impressive.

Venezuela officially teamed up with Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay as a full member of their Mercosur trading bloc in July 2006. At the time, Mr Chavez called the move "historic" and said Venezuela's "road to liberation" lay with Mercosur.

Yet more than three years later, its status is still in limbo, as the club's existing members struggle to ratify the newcomer's application. So far, Venezuela's membership bid has been approved by the leaders of all five states and by the Uruguayan, Argentine and Venezuelan parliaments. However, it has still to be ratified by the Brazilian and Paraguayan legislatures.

So if Brazil is deriving clear economic benefits from closer ties with Venezuela, why has it been so slow to endorse its neighbour's application to join Mercosur? Well, the answer lies in a clause that requires all member countries to be democracies. After measures taken by the Venezuelan government to close one TV station (RCTV) and investigate another (Globovision), some in the Brazilian Congress doubt Mr Chavez's democratic credentials."
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I hadn't realized that Venezuela was on the verge of becoming a full member of Mercosur or that it had been pending for three years awaiting legislative approval in two of the member countries, Brazil and Paraguay. I didn't even know that Chavez had any interest in free trade agreements like this. Perhaps he likes the idea of uniting the continent (kind of like the EU's goal in Europe) which is Mercosur's long term goal.

Info on Mercosur:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/5195834.stm

"Mercosur is South America's leading trading bloc. Known as the Common Market of the South, it aims to bring about the free movement of goods, capital, services and people among its member states."

"It has been likened to the European Union but, with an area of 12m sq km (4.6m sq miles), it is four times as big. The bloc's combined market encompasses more than 250m people and accounts for more than three-quarters of the economic activity on the continent."

"In the longer term, Mercosur aims to create a continent-wide free-trade area..."

[Peace Patriot]

1. The BBC has gotten to be as bad as the Wall Street Urinal.

"So if Brazil is deriving clear economic benefits from closer ties with Venezuela, why has it been so slow to endorse its neighbour's application to join Mercosur? Well, the answer lies in a clause that requires all member countries to be democracies. After measures taken by the Venezuelan government to close one TV station (RCTV) and investigate another (Globovision), some in the Brazilian Congress doubt Mr Chavez's democratic credentials."

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I just love that "Well...". I even kind of admire it. The BBC business section is now going to tell us....um, some goddamn lies from the Jim DeMint's and Orrin Hatch's of the Brazilian and Paraguayan Congresses...

...that "some" doubt "Mr. Chavez's democratic credentials." These are fascists--people who hate Brazil's steelworker president, Lula da Silva, and hate Paraguay's president (the "bishop of the poor") even more. They don't believe in democracy. They believe in rule by the rich. And they are obstructing the policies of the leftist presidents of these countries NOT because they love democracy but because DON'T.

The charge that Chavez going after the corpo-fascist 'news' monopolies who perpetrated a violent rightwing military coup against the elected government makes him not a democrat is not only absurd, it is NOT what they mean. They don't want Chavez to be president of Venezuela, no matter how many people voted for him (nearly 60%) and no matter how transparent Venezuela's elections are (very). They are just like the fascist coupsters! They want "free speech" for fascist corporations and themselves, and that's it. They don't want free speech for anybody else. And they want to run their countries like corpo-fascist fiefdoms.

Just think of health care in this country, and how a few fascist Senators are blockading the health reforms of our own president, and you will understand this situation.

In any case, Mercosur has only six or so members. UNASUR, which has every country in South America as a member, and was formalized last summer, is the new "common market," comparable to the EU. Mercosur is a just a trade group, and a limited one at that. UNASUR is the inclusive organization, intent upon political/economic integration. For instance, Brazil's president proposed that South America form a "common defense" in the context of UNASUR. That is not something that Mercosur would do, or be interested in.

UNASUR is now headquartered in La Paz, Bolivia, and it took its first action and met its first crisis within three months of its formalization--a crisis that gives you the gist of its potential power, and how South American leaders regard UNASUR. The Bushwhacks funded and organized a white separatist insurrection in Bolivia, in September of last year. The insurrectionists were intent upon splitting off Bolivia's gas/oil rich eastern provinces into a fascist mini-state in control of Bolivia's main resources. The fascists rioted, trashed many government buildings, took over an airport, sabotaged a gas pipeline and machine-gunned some 30 unarmed peasant farmers. Morales threw the US ambassador out of Bolivia because the Bushwhacks were funding/organizing this fascist rebellion right out of the US embassy. Chile called an emergency meeting of the newly formed UNASUR, and got a unanimnous resolution strongly backing Morales, and sent delegations to Bolivia to help Morales quell the rebellion. UNASUR refused to allow the insurrectionists at the meeting. The white separatists claimed to be a legitimate government. Chile's president Batchelet said, "No, you are not. You have no standing." (This is what Obama should be saying to the Honduran junta--and it is because of rightwing Congressional obstructionists like Jim DeMint that he is not.) Also in this context (UNASUR's first action), Brazil and Argentina--Bolivia's chief gas customers--made it very clear that they would not recognize or trade with a rebel Bolivian state.

Mercosur's goal is to foster trade among its members, without US interference. Paraguay had to change certain laws to meet Mercosur's rules. For instance, it had to rescind its non-extradition law (by which Paraguay had harbored fascist criminals) and its immunity law for the US military. (Mercosur might also have a rule of no US military bases in the country--but I'm not quite sure.) So Mercosur has some political, or at least, legal integration in mind. But UNASUR has much more ambitious goals, and seeks regional integration and regional independence on a much broader scale. They have not, for instance, forbidden US military bases, because this would exclude Colombia from membership, and bringing Colombia on board, and edging it away from US domination, has been an important intention of UNASUR's leaders (one that Batchelet, the first chair of UNASUR, has worked on). There is a danger in this, for Colombia has already started sabotaging Brazil's "common defense" proposal. And UNASUR's response to the just announced seven new US military bases in Colombia was not as strong and unified as was its response to US interference in Bolivia. But the inclusive part is important if UNASUR is to be a strong "common market." I imagine that US corpo-fascists are very busy trying to sabotage both organizations, but, of the two, I would think that UNASUR is the biggest threat to US domination of the region. It is the potential EU of the Americas.